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Lillian_R

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  1. Lillian_R

    The Great Manchester Railway is born.

    By Lillian_R,


    Lillian's Blog
    Well, its been a while since I posted one of these. Update time, if anyone is interested.
     
    So, last time I left things off saying I wanted to do work with the Woodhead Route and its stock. That stills stands true, I do. But I've since then thought about expanding slightly into the realm of AU railways - which I know are popular, theres certainly room for a lot of speculative thought. What if it had expanded? What if these trains survived? And so on...
     
    And so with my recent ordering of things like KR Models BR Black Fell and GT3 - and also wanting to order the Rails/Heljan GT1 as I call it, the 18000, although I'm undecided if I want the Black or Late Crest Green...the lined Black would match with the Bachmann 10000 if I ever get my hands on one and fit in with the Fell and other things like the EM2s Electra and Aurora when I get around to ordering those, but Green would also go with some of the other EMs. I think Pandora is Green and another one, maybe Ariadne? Plus it just, looks nice.
     
    Anyway...
     
    But yes, I've fallen down that rabbit hole. All those engines did appear in this area at one time for sure. For example we know the Fell was in the now converted Manchester Central, albeit I think it was on fire, hope that doesnt happen to mine... So I've decided I'm going to make a 'What If?' railway with all of these and a few others. All of these locos I've mentioned had either short, interesting and/or quite sad lives with being around so briefly like the Fell, being deemed a failure and never given a chance like the GT3, or being taken too soon like the EMs due to reasons outside their control. So I'm going to give them a chance - although in model form - to live on and be given the time of day they deserve as interesting, fascinating little nuggets of railway history that they are.  What if these engines survived? What if they kept working?
    What if they thrived?
     
    They all overlapped in some fashion across the late 50s through the 60s and to the early 70s - bulk it out with some other general things like an 08 or two, some class 37s, maybe a Hymek, some passenger Bubble Cars or early DMUs like a 101 and 108 perhaps, maybe squeeze in a class 128 DPU as they were just starting to come in, and theres a believable, living, breathing rail network and infrastructure working for the period.
    This also solves the problems of what to do with the 80s era and Railfreight stuff I've picked up - its just a future iteration of things running on the same fictional network. Plus those military trains, they just passin through.
    What about that class 17 and 06 shunter from up in Scotland? Coming to visit, obviously.
     

    Is it a mess? Yes it is. Is it focused and detailed? Not really. Is it realistic? Not even slightly.

    Am I happy? Absolutely.

    I've picked up some lovely thin wooden boards - I wanted a collapsing table of some kind like a pasting table to tidy away when I needed the floorspace but none of them were wide enough, although were long enough - to place onto the floor so nothing is running on the carpet, and some bundles of secondhand track I can clean up. Not completely planned the route out yet  and the engine shed is nowhere near as populated as I would like it to be, but I've finally decided what I'm doing.

    Seems like a sensible first step, at least.
     
    How I'm going to do it is another step entirely and I'm still working that bit out.
  2. Lillian_R

    Pre-Build Ramblings and Thoughts

    By Lillian_R,


    Lillian's Blog
    First blog post, hooray, I think? Not really sure what to put in this yet, more just a ramble about my current 'in-progress' plan so far for a layout, which has only really progressed to a vague idea of what i want the track layout to look like, then realising my tiny flat doesnt have anywhere near enough space after building just a basic loop of track you get in something like the standard Highland Rambler set from Hornby and being a bit frustrated by it combined with high prices of things. So, we took to ebay! And ended up deciding we liked 80s Railfreight-era red stripe/grey stuff and started buying a fleet of those engines + wagons...along with some BR Blue locos just because...and also wanting some military railyard of some description, oh the perks of being indecisive...

    So then I had to decide *where* I wanted to plant my railway flag. I decided to be either predictable, or boring - depending on how you look at it - and just make the setting of my railway in, near and around my home city of Manchester. I love living here, lets put that energy and pride into model form, surely to make something Im going to like, problem solved!
    Well, its not a super accurate Manchester mind you...last time I checked we didnt have an army railyard full of tanks and things nearby, based on the things I've been buying and are on my wishlist, at least in recent memory, but that doesnt mean Im not going to make it anyway for fun.

    I'm not a lady who's super bothered about accuracy or specifics. I know a lot of people in the hobby do enjoy hyper-detailed specific accurate layouts, scenes and models and thats great, more power to them, some of those I've seen have been amazing. Other people make fictional towns but keep true to a time period and that accuracy and detail there, which is still awesome. I cant commit to that.
    I just like model trains, I like playing with them and driving them around, and the complex networks and systems that railways create as its satisfying. The lack of accuracy and lack of care for detail miiiight frustrate some people. For example, lil diesel shunters I find adorable. Lets take the class 06, mainly worked in Scotland from what I can tell. Dont think you'd ever find one working down here but Im going to shove one in anyway. Hey lets throw it in with a class 35 and a 52 why not, maximum chaos. Sure Im going to have local buses and try to make the buildings and stations look right and have accurate names and things but the fleet is just going to be engines I like. I'll at least try to keep the liveries all the same!
    Despite that carnage though, there is one exception to this railway of madness I've settled on making.

    The Woodhead Line.

    The EM1s and EM2s are hands down my absolute favourite trains. And given several local commutes up and down the route - or whats left of it - for personal reasons before I even knew that my fav bois used to trundle up and down it as well it just seemed like a fateful connection. Am I going to make the full thing? Absolutely not I'd need an entire street I think. But I can settle on a fictional track layout that uses the fleet and their companion rolling stock, or as close as I can get.
    So - eventually - I think, despite my initial protestations of being an indecisive mess, I will have some specificity at least to anchor myself to reality at least partially and develop that, wallet allowing. (Sob.)

    There is still going to be that military yard with their tanks running next door to them though.
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